


Shipmates to Friends (and Lovers)

by epersonae



Series: The Journal-Keeper [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Being friends with your boyfriend's boyfriend, Bisexuality, EPISODE 59 SPOILERS LIEK WHOA, Mentors, Multi, Not-very-secret crush, Polyamory, Pre-Canon, Secret Crush, Shipping Magnus with everyone 2k17, Spoilers, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-17 13:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: The beginning of something for Lucretia.





	1. The Journal

**Author's Note:**

> Exploring a few ideas about Lucretia and feelings before I get overtaken by canon, probably. (I thought I was going to be smuttier than I've ended up being. Feelings first, I guess?)
> 
> Note, May 7: this hasn't gotten too beaten up by canon, much to my delight, but I think any additions will be in their own pieces, so this story should be considered its own tiny arc.

Lucretia sat in her chair on the deck with her journal, sketching. Lup and Barry with their arms around each other’s waists; drawing them was mostly drawing the intersection of their billowing robes. Taako was close enough to the couple that the shape of his robe flowed into theirs. It was a nice challenge, getting all those curves to look just right. But Magnus -- her pencil faltered as she started outlining his squareness, the breadth of his uniformed shoulders. Taako’s hand in his back pocket, like it was no big thing. Just focus on them as shapes, she told herself, just record those four for posterity, so she wouldn’t forget this moment.

[ _ In a distant future, the song of the voidfish swallows this moment whole as it consumes a whole book of notes and drawings, leaving her as the only one who could remember. _ ]

But they weren’t just shapes, they were her colleagues, her shipmates, her closest friends, even if she sometimes felt too distant to be a good friend.

Magnus turned his head, and she hadn’t sketched his face at all, so she tried to capture the expression -- what was it? Fondness? Lust? The feelings for the elf at his side. Who could possibly fail to notice the spark between them, even if they pretended to still just be good pals, nothing to see here, nope?

Then she realized, she was staring at Magnus, first of all, staring way too intensely, and secondly, Taako had turned as if to face him, but the elf was looking at her.

“Lucy,  _ daaaaahling _ , are you off in your diary again?”

_ Journal _ , she thought but did not say, as if the difference were important, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. In a flash he was standing over her, looking right at her sketch laid open on her lap.

“Oh what a  _ lovely _ drawing! Lup, dear, you should see how she captures you and Barrold. It’s  _ delightful _ .”

The other elf disentangled herself from her partner and sauntered over.

“This is nice! You keep getting better and better, Lucretia dear.”

Lup leaned in close, her head right next to her brother’s. They were unnervingly similar in appearance and expression.

“I think she appreciates Mags almost as much as  _ you _ do,” she whispered to her brother, putting a long nail tip on the roughly sketched shoulders, outlining the face that Lucretia had been so intent on. Now she had two sets of probing elven eyes to avoid. The silence was painful, but she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Finally Taako jumped up, laughing, and Lup followed, the siblings with their fingers intertwined. Lucretia slammed the book shut. Surely there was something else to do.


	2. Insomnia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sleepless Lucretia interrupts a snack in progress. Feelings are confirmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep meaning to write smutty but it doesn't quite...happen? Also, jeez, I don't even know about verb tenses here.

Lucretia’s blankets were a tangled mess; she’d been tossing and turning, her head a mess. It was no use pretending she would get back to sleep. So she got up and headed to the galley. Maybe she could get a glass of water.

When she opened the door, she was greeted with the smell of pancakes. Almost immediately she turned to go. Only one member of the crew was going to be making food in the middle of the night shift, and after today she was not ready for a cozy midnight chat with Taako.

But of course she wasn’t quick enough. And of course he wasn’t alone.

“Why speak of the devil, bubbeleh! Mags, dear, make room for Lucy.”

The fighter turned towards her. His cheeks were pink, and he wouldn’t look right at her. Damn his long lashes, she thought: was there literally nothing about this man that didn’t get her worked up? She was staring, not turning around, because of course she couldn’t stop staring at Magnus.

“Oh my goodness! The two of you stop gaping at each other like the prettiest thing in the room isn’t the one cooking for you, my dudes. Come have a pancake, Lucy. I promise you don’t have to tell us why you’re awake at this un _ god _ ly hour.”

Of course the pancakes were amazing; he kept putting them in front of her, and she kept eating them. Taako kept his promise and didn’t pry at all, just gave her food. 

But his refusal to pry also left an awkward silence between the three of them, because the two men didn’t go back to whatever it was they’d been talking about. 

Lucretia’s head filled it in with the same sort of worry that had kept her awake originally.  _ Speak of the devil _ ? What had they been talking about? Why wouldn’t Magnus look at her? And wow, why was she fretting about all this like a teenager? She decided that she had to say something.

“These are great, Taako. What do you do to make them so fluffy?”

“I did not live to --” the elf waved his hand non-committally “whatever age so that some  _ human _ , however sharp and pretty, could shine me on. That is not  _ even _ what you mean to be talking about.”

“Taako…” said Magnus.

“Ok, ok…” The elf rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. He tsk-tsked as he turned away from the pair of humans - deliberately? - yes, deliberately, busying himself with dishes. He even began to sing, badly. 

After Taako silently removed Lucretia’s empty plate, Magnus took one of her hands. It wasn’t that her hands were small; she was a tall woman, and her dark hands were long. But he was even taller, and broad, and his hand seemed to swallow hers entirely as he folded his fingers over hers. 

“Lucretia…?” And then he doesn't say anything more. He leans forward and she leans into him. This is the kiss she had been imagining. It's different, of course. She hasn't kissed anyone in…a while. 

Then she stopped thinking entirely, and this is itself a rare pleasure. She is all present tense: Magnus’ lips, soft and full, just a bit chapped, his tongue on hers, their lips hard against each other, noisy and messy. His hand grips hers even tighter.

But then she remembered that Taako was standing right there. She pulled away, panting, wanting more. Her whole body wanted Magnus. She wanted to grope him all over. But her back between her shoulder blades prickled with awareness of the elf standing  _ right there _ .

Magnus’ eyes were closed, and his kiss-swollen lips curled in a half-smile. Damn Taako, she thought, and she could almost rationalize that this was his fault somehow. Not sure how, but damn him anyway. She leaned forward again, though, into another kiss. Magnus moaned and she found herself moaning as well. She rested her free hand on his thigh, and he started to pull her close….

“Don’t fall,” said Taako, “unless you want to wake the whole ship.”

They pulled apart abruptly -- Magnus with a grunt, Lucretia with a gasp.

Magnus’ voice was a low growl: “Taako…”

Oh gods, what had she done? Lucretia was mortified and once again her embarrassment froze her in place.

But Taako’s voice, by contrast, was light, tender even.

“Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, I had no idea a woman of your complexion could show such a flush! And Mags, bubbeleh, well…” The smile on the elf’s face deepened until dimples appeared on both cheeks. “Anyway, homies, these stools are a bit precarious, and maybe you’d rather continue somewhere a little more suitable.”

Lucretia let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding in. She couldn’t look at Taako directly yet, only register his amusement out of the corner of her eye. Instead, she looked at Magnus, put a hand on his face, her fingers in the wild curls of his sideburns, which were both rough and soft at the same time.

She cleared her throat in the hopes of clearing her thoughts.

“Magnus?”

All he did was look at her, but the intensity of that look was almost more than she could handle.

“Yes Lucretia.”

“Do you want--” and she never got a chance to finish the sentence, he took her hand from his cheek, held both of her hands together in his, started kissing her hands, whispering into her fingers “Yes, Lucretia.” She would’ve jumped into his lap right then, and then what? But she was still painfully away of the elf still bustling about the already tidy galley.

“What about Taako?” she whispered.

Magnus blinked, looked at her again, and then at Taako. Something that surprised Lucretia: a conspiratorial glint in his eyes, a challenge?

“Taako’s way ahead of you here, but not tonight bubbeleh. You kids get your own...rhythm. Taako’s good out here.” And with that he was gone, leaving them along.

In the same way that she was surprised by that glint in Magnus’ eyes, she was a bit startled at the flicker of disappointment on the big man’s face.

“Magnus?”

And then it’s gone. His hazel eyes were intent on her. He pulled her closer, lifted her off of her stool and onto his lap as if she were weightless. She rested her head in his chest, while he buried his face in her fluff of blond curls. There was a moment of stillness between them, something resolved and determined, before the fire came back between them. Her delight to know that he’d been lusting after her the way she had been lusting after him. She wiggled her hips and he groaned. He tugged on her hair, not hard, just enough so that her face was tilted up towards his and she’s drowning in his eyes again and somehow they’re also kissing? Her whole body was made of fire, his body was made of fire.

She tried scooting around on his lap so she could sit astride him but this was a hilarious awkward disaster. Magnus only kept them upright by flinging a hand on the counter and standing as she scrambled off of him at the same time. They both started giggling.

They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other and he hoisted her up onto the counter so he could just grind against her, and she couldn’t stop touching him, she wanted at least six hands so she could grab his hair and his chest and his thighs, maybe undo the belt of his uniform, since her nightdress was already pushed up over her hips.

“Wait, are you on  _ duty _ ?”

“Only for you,” which came out sounding sillier than he probably intended and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Ok, ok, sorry, I just finished my shift and Taako offered to make a snack. You know what, though, this is a little awkward” -- he ground his hips into hers again, damn him -- “for this” -- and then he lifted her up in his arms, damn that boy was strong, and he carried her out of the galley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got two more vignettes in progress and a couple of other ideas, but I don't know how much the canon is about to change under me, so...


	3. A Very Professional Backrub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of course Magnus gives the best backrubs.

Barry and Merle were playing a game of cards: some variant of solitare, but with two players. From their expressions, it looked like maybe Barry was winning.

Lup sat in the big chair with Taako at her feet. She was working elaborate braids into her brother's hair.

Magnus sat across from them, whittling something as-yet undefined out of a piece of dark wood about the size of one of his hands.

Davenport was upstairs, his capable hands on the tiller, while his crew relaxed down below.

And then Lucretia sat alone, writing in her journal. She'd already filed her official report, but today's observations were strange enough that she wanted to think through the implications on her own.

"You're still working," said Magnus. While she was lost in her own thoughts, he had set down his whittling. Now he stood looking over her shoulder. Even though the writing was nothing personal, Lucretia still hunched over the page.

"Just trying to figure something out."

Now that she knew he was close, she couldn't keep writing. She took a deep breath, and that reckless infatuation bubbled up in her breast.

"Sure. Of course. You're always thinking so hard, Lucretia. You need to relax." He rested one of his big hands on her shoulder, and she startled. "this is what I'm talking about! Backrub?"

She looked up at him and he wiggled his eyebrows mischievously, that big open grin spreading across his face.

"Ulterior motive much?" she said, and had the distinct pleasure of watching him blush, going pink from his shirt collar to his hairline. But he just shrugged.

"You do need to relax a little."

She shut the journal and sat back in the chair. She glanced around the room, but the twins were still deep in conversation and Barry was engrossed in his cards. Merle glanced at her briefly with a quizzical look in his eyes, but when she gave him a tiny nod he went back to his game. There would be a conversation later, but not now.

Magnus had taken the nod as a signal to start. She was almost surprised by the patient skill in his broad hands. No, not surprised, but there was such a difference from how he touched her when he meant to arouse her. The thumbs on either side of her neck were warm, solid, practiced, and if she let out a sigh, it was strictly from the release of tension in her neck that she hadn't even realized was there.

He moved to the tops of her shoulders, his fingertips working her collarbone while the heels of his hands pressed into the muscles of her upper back. She let her eyes fall closed.

"You write too much; it's killing your posture. You should come train with me sometime, you'll feel better."

"Mm-hmm." She wasn't really listening, his voice was just another piece of his aura of safety and competence. She leaned forward as he worked his way down her back, easing knots and smoothing kinks.

Then he placed one warm hand across the small of her back while at the same time his other hand played with the wispy curls at the nape of her neck. She inhaled sharply. He leaned over, his face close to hers, close enough that she could feel the tickle of his sideburns.

"Want to keep going?" he whispered.

On the one hand, she'd let that voice carry her anywhere. On the other -- she looked around at her crewmates.

"After dinner," she said. "I don't want to be so...obvious."

He let out his great bark of a laugh.

"Of course," he said, surreptitiously dropping a kiss behind her ear. "You are a close cagey one one sometimes, Lucretia." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two related inspirations:
> 
> Obviously this bit from the first episode of the Crystal Kingdom arc: "I hand her a coupon for one free back rub." "This is actually exactly what I was afraid of. Magnus, this is the nightmare scenario."
> 
> Also, an in joke from a group of friends about a million years ago. Back rubs lead to...well...things.
> 
> So it's the nightmare scenario not so much because she's his boss, but because of those pesky memories. :(


	4. More Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's another late-night pancake session. But this time, Lucretia finds Taako in the galley alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a very tiny scene I couldn't get out of my head. Why pancakes? I have no idea, really. Also, this time I decided to lean into the present tense.

Lucretia takes a detour to the galley on her way from Magnus' bunk back to her own bed. They'll both be bleary-eyed in the morning, but at least they'll be coming from their own rooms. They're still acting like nothing is happening, and they're not talking at all about why that is.

She's just planning on a drink of water, maybe a fruit cup: she is a little hungry, after all that. But when she comes into the kitchen, Taako is there, still in his red robe. Of course: his shift just ended. He's making tea, near as she can tell, but he gives her a little conspiratorial smile as she comes in.

"Lucy, bubeleh, let me make you a pancake" and stuff starts flying out of cupboards of its own accord "I love cooking too much" the grill lights with a sparkling flash "and I'm sure you must be ravenous" as he cradles the bowl of batter "our Mags is a vigorous boy, am I right?"

Lucretia can't help but blush.

The elf winks at her as he pours batter onto the pan. "I should be grateful, I mean, I get so much more work done now."

"But, really? Why...?" she lets the question trail off because -- why all of it, really?

His expression turns serious.

"Really? It's not my choice to make. The heart" he sighs "the heart wants what it wants. He lavishes so much attention on cha'boy Taako, how can I begrudge sharing?"

He flips the pancake -- or rather, levitates it, flicks it with a finger to turn it over, and lets it drop from a bit too high so that it splatters dramatically. He's focused on the cooking, and she's focused on his face. The little frown of concentration, the stray ear twitch, the way his charm always seems mingled with a bit of wary sorrow. Under the robes he always dresses to sparkle and shine; he does little glamours on his face and his hair even when only the seven of them on the ship are there to see. But he's beautiful even without effort, she decides, as he puts a pancake on a plate and slides it across to her.

Before she takes a bite she says, "He loves you, you know."

"He loves you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's possible I'm working out some old Issues from my younger years, beginning from the moment I realized that L & M were probably in their 20s together in the IPRE.
> 
> I have two more ideas for vignettes; we'll see if they survive an encounter with canon on Thursday.


	5. A Friend and a Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Planting seeds with Merle and getting a mentor's support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavily influenced by Merle & Lucretia's Lunar Interlude scene in Episode 40, sort of connects to my previous story that extends that scene. This hasn't been edited at all yet, really.

It had always been easier for Lucretia to have serious conversations while doing something else. Folding laundry together was how she and her mother survived Lucretia's adolescence, and it was no different now, working in the conservatory with Merle.

She placed seeds in little pots and covered them with his special soil mix, while Merle murmured prayers to his god to coax the plants awake. By the time he set the pots in the frames under the lights, tiny green shoots were beginning to emerge.

It was quiet, almost meditative, working with objects instead of words. She didn't mind the dirt accumulating under her nails. And Merle's soft gruff chanting was relaxing. When she watched him work with his beloved plants, she could almost believe, and she knew that he believed, whatever he might joke about how he'd gotten there.

He broke the silence first.

"So, how's my girl?"

She tried to get away with a non-committal noise, but he snort-laughed.

"I may be old, but I'm not blind, Lucretia. This old dwarf still has two eyes to see."

Then she tried just handing him another seedling pot, but he'd folded his arms.

"You and Magnus, I know you're having fun, I mean, I assume you're having fun--"

"Merle!"

"Don't 'Merle' me, young lady. You need a friend to check in on you, and old Merle's going to make sure his favorite student is safe and happy. I don't want you to regret coming on this journey."

"Of course. Yes. I mean, this work is still the most interesting thing I've ever done. And I'm happy. Magnus..." She stopped for just a second, blushing. It doesn't show much, but she blushes far more easily than she likes. "Yeah, it's fun, but he's also good. I mean, just plain good. And it's funny, I love how good he and Taako are to each other...I didn't expect...."

"If I've learned anything in this line of work," he said, "it's to always try to keep an open mind. Lucretia, honey, you're stronger than you know. My faith" -- he shrugged -- "really it's not much, but you've got that inner conscience. You'll remember how to keep to what you believe, I know it." He held out his hand for the seedling and she passed it to him. "And whenever you need a break or a friend to talk to, I'll be here."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is this even a chapter?

"If you and that boy break his heart, I will ruin  you."

Lucretia looked up from her work to see Lup in front of her. A naked flame sat in the elf's outstretched hand. All Lucretia could do was nod as Lup snapped her hand shut and the fire vanished. Lup turned on her heel and left without saying a word. 

Later, after all that happened, Lup's words would be the first thing Lucretia would remember when she saw her former friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty sure Lup will fuck you up if you hurt Taako.

**Author's Note:**

> With much fondness for my bi ex-boyfriends, their boyfriends, esp Richard (RIP), and all the folks who were with me back in the day.


End file.
